Since the Ultimate Fighting Championship began its “durable and sustainable” foray into the UK at 2007’s UFC 70: Worlds Collide, there have been a pair of show stealers lurking on the most of the subsequent undercards. While Marcus Davis and Chris Lytle have lit up the MMA world facing a various array of dangerous UK-based opponents, UFC 93 finally offers fight fans the chance to see the former professional boxers square off against each other. While it’s not the main event of UFC 93, it certainly appears to be the most exciting.

It’s been a long road to this point for both the Bostonian Davis and the Indiana-based Lytle.

It’s hard to imagine a fighter with only one loss in his professional boxing career stepping down after fighting over twenty times. After appearing on ESPN Friday Night Fights, Davis seemed to be another young hopeful in the pugilistic stratosphere. Davis had thought he had found his calling…then, his calling changed.

While Chris Lytle has fought around the globe in a number of different MMA organizations, his story also began in the squared circle of professional boxing. With a boxing record of 13-1, Lytle has never considered himself as anything but a fighter.

Unfortunately for these former pugilists, the world of mixed martial arts was not so kind. They had potential, and they had many great potential match ups. Opponents however flooded their training camps with the same mantra,

“Don’t trade punches.”

The result was opponents giving Lytle, Davis and fight fans fits as they time and again took the outgunned warriors to the floor and simply outclassed them. All they really wanted was someone to step up to the plate and stand with them. Marcus Davis got that chance in the UK, and Chris Lytle in the young Brazilian Thiago Alves.

For Davis, the war and subsequent win over Paul Taylor at UFC – made him an instant hit in the United Kingdom. For Lytle, an unfortunate cut from miles on scar tissue put a stop to any hopes of scoring the Octagon knockout that he had dreamed of. That, however, was a long time ago.

After the ups and downs of a sport as spastic as mixed martial arts, both Davis and Lytle have found welterweight stardom preceded by a trail of broken bodies. On their rise to the top, they managed to avoid each other.

It’s a stylistic dream fight. Two men with vast professional boxing backgrounds that have made the informal agreement not to do anything but trade. Davis is faster, stronger and carries serious one punch KO power. Lytle is more composed, the consummate counter puncher with the patience to enter a firefight to land the big one. While UFC 93 is entitled Franklin vs. Henderson, the undercard will surely belong to Marcus Davis and Chris Lytle.